In my experience most of the higher end dealerships are much more willing to talk with and take on test drives someone who is interested but not committed to a new car purchase then the sales staff in the common brands. Perhaps the commissions on the more expensive brands is high enough for the sales staff to afford to spend time on long term prospects, ( I have to admit that until reading this thread I never thought of that possiblity) but as recently as a year ago i was at store next to what i guess is my second nearest BMW dealer and I wandered over to look at the Z4 they had out front. A sales guy was out in under a minute and even after I told him, while it was a beautiful machine, it was well out of my price range still offered to set me up for a test drive. I didn't take him up on it as i don't anticipate ever buying one and i don't personally like to put mileage on a dealers car if i have no intent on buying one ever, but i was blown away by the friendliness of the sales staff. If I ever decide to look at a lower end BMW they will get the first opportunity to make the sale.
Now conversely at the Mitsu dealership i now use for service work, the sales staff barely took the time to say hello when i stopped to ask if they would have any Lancer Ralliart's coming in soon. Given that I have a Lancer and could see my self moving to the Ralliart it seems strange they weren't willing to give me any time to even get me a pamphlet. Now the worst I've ever been treated was at Honda dealerships (yes that's meant to be plural). At 3 different Honda dealerships in two provinces I've been treated like I was a Hooker at church social. Not just ignored but insulted. I' have no doubt that Honda makes decent cars but I've never test driven one and as I'm a three strikes kinda guy I never will unless a sales guy I've had a good experience with joins a Honda dealers staff and even then not if its any of the three that left me with such an unpleasant experience.
Mind you after looking at Cords thread about some of his customers stupid and almost criminal acts it may also be that the common brand dealers may have to deal with far more people looking for everything for nothing, that makes them less willing to accommodate a person they consider less then serious.
I would be interested in if its a matter of the sales staff can afford to mine more prospects in the luxury brands do to commission size, or is it a case of not dealing with as many people trying to steal an advantage on them, which makes them more willing to spend time with long shot kind of customers?
